In order to assemble products that feature the use of springs therein, springs have to be fed from a storage position to a position adjacent an assembly line where they may be either robotically positioned or installed manually by a worker on that assembly line. Applicant has created a spring detangler that is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,079,456 in which clumps of springs received in a container mounted on a pallet are positioned in a hopper and then fed into a rotating chamber where they are separated. Thereafter, the springs are fed to a position remote from the detangler through a feed tube having a cavity therein which is slightly larger diametrically than the springs to be detangled. As a result, the springs are fed serially toward that remote location. It has become apparent that even through the coil springs are originally detangled and positioned in the vacuum tube, they may rotate therein by the vacuum forces so as to be end to end engaged, although it be an amount less entanglement than prior to their being positioned in the detangler.
A need has developed for a spring separator to act to rotate in line springs fed through a tube, whether from a spring detangler or otherwise, to separate the spring so they can be individually manipulated in a product assembly process.